Candidate doesn?t shy away from Obama

Published 12:00 am, Monday, August 16, 2010

AUSTIN — While some statewide Democratic hopefuls were scarce when PresidentBarackObama came to town, lieutenant governor candidate Linda Chavez-Thompson sent out a fundraising e-mail touting her role in his visit.

“I didn't shake his hand,” Chavez-Thompson wrote. “I walked up straight to him, stared him in the eye and greeted him with a warm abrazo (hug). Because that's the way you greet a fellow laborer.”

Chavez-Thompson, up against well-funded GOP Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, asked supporters in the e-mail for “$25, $35, $50 or whatever you can afford.”

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She said by phone that she was “bowled over” when the White House asked her to introduce Obama at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser last week. Chavez-Thompson, a DNC vice president, said she got to know Obama when he was a U.S. senator from Illinois and she was executive vice president of the national AFL-CIO.

“This is her first run for major office. She's up against a tough and very well-funded candidate,” Jillson said. “If you're running significantly behind, you have to do everything you can to excite your base vote.”

Jillson said he also understood the decision by Democrat Bill White, who is challenging GOP Gov. Rick Perry, to maintain a campaign schedule that kept him away from Obama as White woos the independent vote. But he added that “I thought the way he did it risked offending the base Democratic vote. He could have been less dismissive of Obama while still not going out of his way to meet with him.”

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